CAIRO – A court in Egypt sentenced to
death 529 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on
charges of murdering a policeman and attacking police, convicting them
after only two sessions in one of the largest mass trials in the country
in decades.
The verdicts are subject to appeal and would likely be overturned,
rights lawyers said. But they said the swiftness and harshness of the
rulings on such a large scale underlined the extent to which Egypt's
courts have been politicized and due process has been ignored amid a
sweeping crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood supporters since the
military removed the president last summer.
The first of the trial's two sessions in a court in the city of
Minya, south of Cairo, saw furious arguments as the judge angrily
rejected requests by defense lawyers for more time to let them review
the trial documents for the hundreds of defendants. In Monday's session
when the verdicts and sentences were read, security forces barred
defense lawyers from attending, one of the lawyers, Yasser Zidan, told
The Associated Press.
"This is way over the top and unacceptable," said attorney Mohammed
Zarie, who heads a rights center in Cairo. "It turns the judiciary in
Egypt from a tool for achieving justice to an instrument for taking
revenge."
(Click link below to read more)
READ MORE
Sphere: Related Content
About Me

- Judy Chaffee
- This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment